


Yasumi

by Josey (cestus)



Category: Bleach
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-31
Updated: 2013-01-31
Packaged: 2017-11-27 15:00:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/663347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cestus/pseuds/Josey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The blame for this piece of absolute fluff lies firmly at the feet of <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/junko/pseuds/junko">junko</a> who wondered why Renji looked so stricken when Byakuya appeared on the battlefield to face Äs Nödt, and then cooed when I suggested that maybe Byakuya was a new father. So yeah, all junko's fault. Not me at all. Because I would never ever write fluff like this unless prompted. Honestly.</p></blockquote>





	Yasumi

The announcement comes on the anniversary of their victory over Aizen. At first Renji is shocked. In his mind, Kuchiki-taichō is synonymous with aloneness. And probably loneliness, if he'd stopped to think about it, which he hadn't. He'd just assumed. 

"Idiot," Rukia had said when he asked. "He's head of the Kuchiki clan. What else was he going to do? It's been over fifty years."

And so there is a wedding. Harumi makes a stunningly beautiful bride who blushes prettily when her equally handsome groom leans over to whisper in her ear. And Renji leads the honour guard trying to feel prouder of being lieutenant of the 6th than he is terrified of screwing everything up. 

He needn't have worried. The only excitement is when the bride's great uncle gets drunk and falls in the koi pond, which everyone had foreseen anyway. The next morning a bouquet of flowers arrives, complete with an apology signed _Kyōraku Shunsui_ in a painfully neat female hand. Renji makes a point of thanking Nanao the next time he sees her. She did take the guy home, and no one should have to put up with singing like that without some form of gratitude.

Kuchiki-taichō takes the week after the wedding off, and after that... absolutely nothing changes. Renji isn't sure what he'd expected. A mellowing of his captain's icy façade perhaps? The odd early day or long weekend to take his new wife out on a romantic picnic? But no. There's nothing. If he hadn't been at the ceremony himself, Renji would have started to suspect it hadn't happened at all.

And then one morning the captain's desk is empty when Renji arrives at work. 

That in itself is unusual; taichō is normally there when Renji gets to the division and is still working when he leaves for the day. Thinking he's maybe forgotten a captain's meeting or some clan business, he even checks taichō's diary, but the day is as empty as Renji's memory for what he might have missed.

The desk remains unoccupied all the morning and throughout lunch. Renji eats in his own office, unwilling to risk missing taichō's return, and is rewarded by a glimpse of white haori sweeping down the corridor just past one o'clock. 

He's clearing away the last of his bentō, thinking to give taichō five minutes to get settled before tackling him for information, when a knock comes at his open door. Renji looks up to find Kuchiki-taichō standing in the doorway, with a bottle in his hand. Still hunched over the trashcan, where he's trying to brush crumbs off his hakama, Renji freezes and stares at the man, because there's something about him...

"Renji..." Kuchiki-taichō says, and there's a quaver in his voice, the likes of which Renji has never heard before. 

Renji gives his clothing a last hasty swipe then yanks out a chair and waves his captain into it. Rather than take the other for himself, he perches on the desk, ready to throw himself into the fray on his captain's behalf. He's not sure why he feels like it might be necessary but he thinks it might have something to do with the way Kuchiki-taichō's reiatsu is fluttering, like he's half a step away from panicking. Or passing out.

And then there's the bottle. It's sake. The good stuff going by the label, and why Kuchiki-taichō should be clinging to it like it's the last stable rock in a whirlpool is beyond Renji. 

The question, 'who died?' is hovering on Renji's lips, when Kuchiki-taichō says, "Renji, I..." And then stops again. His eyes look like he's not just lost the gist, but the plot as well. 

When the only thing that happens for the next minute is that bottle getting turned around and around by elegant long fingers, Renji finally breaks and says, "Did ya need something, Byakuya-san?" He can't quite bring himself to drop all honorifics but if there's one thing bound to jerk taichō out of whatever this odd mood is, it's someone being impolite to him.

Instead of the frosty glare he's expecting, he gets a soft bemused look, and now Renji's really worried. "Okay," he says, "you've got thirty seconds to tell me what's wrong or I'm calling Captain Unohana."

"Oh, she already knows," comes the immediately reply. And though it's uninformative, it seems to shift the gears in Kuchiki-taichō's mind. He sits up straighter and reaches out to put the bottle on the desk. "Renji," he says, "I'm going to be a father."

Six months later and Renji is on duty at the manor. Not officially, of course, but about a week previously Harumi-sama had requested his presence and then all but begged him to sit on her husband when the time came, to stop him from doing anything stupid. At that point, Renji thought she was over-reacting, but now he thinks she might know her husband better than he does.

Byakuya is pacing like a caged lion, muttering under his breath and sending out spikes of reiatsu that can't be good for the staff. All that, and labour's only been going on for an hour. Now Renji's no expert, but he's read up here and there, and he's pretty damn sure that these things normally last a bit longer than that.

"Taichō, why don't ya sit down," he says and pats the seat next to him. Byakuya levels the sort of look at him that's normally accompanied by the words, 'Chire, Senbonzakura,' and then ignores him. Half an hour after that, they retire to the training ground and Renji takes advantage of his captain's distraction to beat his ass into the ground. Pity it can't count on their rolling tally.

A servant comes to find them hours later. By then they've washed and changed and drunk three bottles of sake between them and Renji's found out that Byakuya's memories of his own father are somewhat hazy but desperately fond, and that he's terrified of not being good enough. Hearing that from a man who normally takes such pride in his abilities feels beyond wrong and Renji's about to call him on it as the servant appears.

When he sees the baby, Renji's glad he never had a chance to speak. She's tiny and perfect and so fragile that even though she's nothing to do with him, Renji's terrified of not being good enough either. He hovers just inside the door, feeling like an intruder, and watches as his captain picks his daughter up for the very first time. 

And sees the last of the ice melt.

**Author's Note:**

> The blame for this piece of absolute fluff lies firmly at the feet of [junko](http://archiveofourown.org/users/junko/pseuds/junko) who wondered why Renji looked so stricken when Byakuya appeared on the battlefield to face Äs Nödt, and then cooed when I suggested that maybe Byakuya was a new father. So yeah, all junko's fault. Not me at all. Because I would never ever write fluff like this unless prompted. Honestly.


End file.
